Wideband RCS Reduction Based on Hybrid Checkerboard Metasurface

Abstract

Traditional stealth technologies all have their problems such as high cost and large thickness. To solve the problems, we used novelty checkerboard metasurface in stealth technology. Checkerboard metasurface does not have as high conversion efficiency as radiation converters, but it has many advantages such as small thickness and low cost. So it is expected to overcome the problems of traditional stealth technologies. Unlike other checkerboard metasurfaces, we improved it further by using two types of polarization converter units to be arranged in turn to form a hybrid checkerboard metasurface. Because the checkerboard metasurface composed of one type of polarization converter units can have a relatively wide radar cross-section (RCS) reduction in bandwidth when two types of polarization converter units are arranged in turn to form a hybrid checkerboard metasurface and mutual compensation of the two polarization converter units can broaden RCS reduction band further. Therefore, by designing the metasurface to be independent from the polarization, the effect of RCS reduction can be insensitive to the polarization of the incoming EM waves. The experiment and simulation results showed the value of this proposed hybrid checkerboard metasurface for RCS reduction. Mutual compensation of the units is a new attempt in the field of checkerboard metasurfaces for stealth technology and proved to be effective.